Malek, Magnussen Up For Next Bond Film

He was first rumored a while back and now several outlets are reporting that Oscar winner Rami Malek is looking likely to take the role of the villain in the next James Bond film. Malek was previously linked to the part but his filming commitments on the final season of “Mr. Robot” seemingly prevented it.

Collider was the first to break the new story, indicating that while meetings with other talent have taken place, producers have worked tirelessly to try and accommodate Malek for both shoots and it looks like the recent delay of filming on the new Bond to early April has seen things worked out.

There are apparently four key new roles being cast – the male villain, a new female MI6 agent, a female accomplice for Bond said to be very akin to Olga Kurylenko’s Camille in “Quantum of Solace,” and a male CIA agent who will effectively serve in the same capacity Jeffrey Wright’s Felix Leiter did in two of the previous Daniel Craig Bond films.

For that latter role, Billy Magnussen is reportedly the top choice says Variety – but it’s not clear if an offer has been made yet. Magnussen previously worked with the new film’s writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga on the Netflix series “Maniac” and when Fukunaga came onboard he apparently re-wrote the CIA character to be younger and close to Magnussen’s age.

The two female leads however are the most open-ended roles as of now with chemistry reads with Craig still being scheduled. These two characters will reportedly spend the most amount of time with him on screen. All are expected to join Daniel Craig along with confirmed returnees Lea Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris.

Fukunaga turned in a draft at the beginning of the year and while there have since been reports of major re-writes by Scott Z. Burns, today’s reports indicate no significant changes were made and both producers and Craig are excited with what Fukunaga had delivered.

It’s expected a press conference to mark the start of filming will take place in coming weeks, with a potential title reveal at that time. The movie opens in cinemas April 8th 2020.